Three of the Final Four teams have low rates of graduation

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
The top basketball teams in the country started battling for a national championship in San Antonio on Saturday, with Georgia Tech and Connecticut deciding who's the best team tonight.
Well, at least the best when it comes to on-the-court matters.
When NCAA representatives introduce players during the tournament as "student-athletes," there are often twitters and raised eyebrows through the press corps.
Three Final Four teams have graduation rates at or below 33 percent, according to data collected by the government and released by the NCAA. That, and the fact that four teams in the original field of 65 graduated no players, is "a shameful situation" in the words of William C. Friday, the chairman of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and president emeritus of the University of North Carolina.
"We bring 'em in, use 'em up and let 'em go," Friday said.
The commission is a watchdog group that has pushed for reform in college sports since 1989. In 2001, it recommended schools be required to graduate 50 percent of its players to be eligible for postseason competition.
This year's summary of how the NCAA men's basketball tournament field of 65 fares included such eye-openers as:
44 schools failed to meet the 50 percent threshold.
Ten schools didn't graduate even 20 percent of their players.
Only three of 33 games in the play-in and first rounds pitted two schools that achieved 50 percent rates: Mississippi State vs. Monmouth, Gonzaga vs. Valparaiso and North Carolina vs. Air Force.